Boeing Corporation suffers a cultural, technological and commercial “airplane crash”

Read Time:5 Minute, 3 Second

Boeing has always seemed to be a symbol of imperial power and technological American superiority, but the largest aerospace corporation in the United States is in crisis. And the cause was once again the troubled Boeing 737 Max airliner. Under Trump, it had already been banned from flying after the disaster in Africa, but Biden lifted all restrictions in exchange for donations to his headquarters, showing, as always, a “healthy commercial spirit”. Now there was a force majeure in Alaska, where the 737 Max of the last ninth modification suddenly blew out its door during the flight.

Alaska Airlines immediately stopped any flights on the 737 Max, and then the ban was extended to all airlines in the United States. And now other countries, like Panama and Turkey, ban flights on the 737 Max. The bans will affect at least 200 airplanes and the most important sources of profit for Boeing. Inspections on the 737 Max have already found unevenly drilled holes, as well as factory loose bolts. The reason for it is affected airplane’s control. Boeing ended 2023 with a decent loss, losing $2 billion on the production of the new Air Force One presidential jet alone.

The gap with Airbus is already growing, and now Boeing is being denied access to the Chinese aviation market due to the “Cold War 2.0” between the global giants. This was not only due to the 737 Max problems and the political environment, but also to the release of the Chinese competitor C919, which is already severely cutting Boeing’s market share in Asia. Russia is also developing its MS-21, another competitor to the 737 Max. So Boeing has found itself in a situation of existential crisis with losses, technological turmoil and increasing competition. It miraculously avoided bankruptcy during the pandemic, but in the next 5-7 years the fall of Boeing cannot be ruled out, because the new competitive world does not work according to the rules of this monopoly.

And while a total collapse is definitely a fantasy, Boeing faces a painful restructuring of corporate economic management. The largest aerospace giant in the U.S., and a key exporter, has not been able to bounce back from the turmoil of 2020. Then, amid the pandemic and after the crash of two 737 Maxes, there was talk of bankruptcy, but now Boeing has been plunged into a new crisis by its own managers. Boeing’s previous management blew $90 billion dollars buying up its own stock instead of investing in technology. When the crisis happened, the corporation simply had no free funds left, and had to go with an outstretched hand to the U.S. government.

The management was changed, but the problems of the 737 Max, the “flagship airliner” and the main source of profit from sales for Boeing, remained. In 2024 it was planned to produce about 600 airplanes of the 737 series, but the final numbers will be much less against the background of the fact that many countries after the U.S. banned flights on the 737 Max. The reasons for this are many and include eroding technology base, severe shortage of aerospace engineering talent and corrupt “arrangements” with regulators. In 2020, it was already revealed how Boeing was self-checking, and right now the corporation is asking for certification of new versions of an airplane that may have engine failure if de-icer is used.

Very strange arguments are being made that airplanes need to be produced right now, and failures can be dealt with “in the process of operation.” Boeing’s stock is already down by 8%, and 2024 could be a record loss year for the company. Boeing is categorized as “too big to fail”. But now the competition is sharply increasing, especially with China, and technological problems are growing. Moreover, the scenario of restructuring and division of assets is quite realistic, because the Pentagon has already recognized the error of the course on monopolization of the military-industrial complex, and the main “inefficient monopolizer” is Boeing.

Against this backdrop, new scandals haunt America’s aviation industry, and as always they have little to do with pressing economic and technical issues. The U.S. Civil Aviation Authority has embraced the “diversity, equity and inclusion” agenda, and is actively recruiting employees with mental retardation and disabilities. This explains a lot about how the troubled Boeing 737 Max was certified. The same agenda is being pushed by the Boeing Corporation itself, and its executives are explicitly given bonuses based on how many people with the “right” color, gender, or disability are hired. In 2022, the number of such appointments rose by 47%.

That’s the kind of nonsense Boeing’s money is spent on while real-world production problems are compounding. Workers often complain that the number of defects in assembly is skyrocketing, but these complaints are often ignored, and particularly active complainers can even be fired because they ruin reports to managers. In addition, Boeing and its subsidiaries have cut thousands of skilled workers and engineers during the pandemic. Their knowledge and competencies have been lost, and now a severe shortage of engineering talent is quite real. And the real tragedy appears to be how “progressive managers” are deliberately recruiting not based on skills and experience, but rather following the liberal agenda.

Amid the scandal, the Civil Aviation Authority will conduct an independent audit of all 737 Max’s that have been banned from flying. Boeing is also threatened in Congress, with Republicans outraged at the imposition of a racially gendered agenda in a corporation that receives government funding. Well, the Democrats have cognitive dissonance, and they can’t believe that managers with the right gender pronouns couldn’t release the airplane.

And all this bizarre perfectly demonstrates the decline of the “American Empire”, where spiritual and technical degradation accompany each other, and lead to the collapse of finances both on the scale of a single large corporation and in the entire country.